Peter Brant Still Has Money to Burn

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Peter Brant’s White Birch paper company filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, but losing an estimated half of his net worth hasn’t stopped the Interview publisher from indulging in his favorite passion: art. This month at Brant’s Foundation Art Study Center in Greenwich, the artist Urs Fischer displays several giant wax statues of the publishing tycoon as part of his exhibit, Oscar the Grouch. But these aren’t like the statues at Madam Tussauds — each contain a wick protruding from the multimillionaire’s head. Lit each day, the statues will melt into stubs by the time the exhibit closes in February. Basically they’re like giant, Peter-Brant-shaped Diptyque candles, only they don’t smell like anything — except perhaps burnt money. In an interview with Bloomberg News, Brant noted that the cost of setting up the installation was “substantial,” though he declined to give a dollar figure. “It was a big undertaking,” he said. Which is basically the point—as Bloomberg notes, the idea of burning them is to “highlight the transience of such treasures.” But it might have another point, too. For instance, we can’t help but wonder how Brant’s ex, Stephanie Seymour, with whom he is engaged in a bitter divorce, feels about watching her settlement meltaway.